Assistant Director / Manager Individual and Family Support

Provide oversight, direction and monitoring of the area youth justice service.

Ensure there is youth justice court advice coverage at all scheduled children’s court sittings within their area.

Youth Justice Senior Practice Advisor

Provide case consultation, particularly regarding young people exhibiting high-risk behaviours. This should occur subject to local area agreements between Assistant Director / Manager Individual Family Support and the Senior Practice Advisor.

Conducting an assessment requested by the court or legal representative

Meet with the young person and explain the expectations associated with supervised bail and deferral of sentence.

The assessment will help to determine whether the young person is suitable for youth justice supervised bail or deferral of sentence.

If the young person consents to participate, complete the assessment using the Supervised bail / deferral of sentence assessment guide.

Ensure that any previous cases in the Client Relationship Information System (CRIS) are reviewed and all relevant matters, including any alerts, are taken into consideration in the assessment.

Areas of required support and assistance identified during the assessment process should be incorporated into the young person’s bail plan. The bail plan template can be found in the Supervised bail / deferral of sentence assessment guide.

The assessment process can be ongoing, with areas of need identified throughout the period of bail.

Any new areas of required support and assistance should be documented by updating the bail plan.

If there is any concern about the young person’s suitability, the youth justice court advice worker will consult line management before making a final decision about the recommendation to the court.

If the court has approved supervised bail or a deferral of sentence without an assessment

On rare occasions there may be a request and subsequent approval by the court for youth justice supervised bail or deferral of sentence without an assessment being undertaken.

In this case, youth justice should liaise with the court to confirm the appropriate referral protocol.

Youth justice must still complete an assessment, even though the court has already granted bail or deferral of sentence. This can be done if the young person is still within the court precinct. Ensure a referral is received from the court for the young person’s file.

If the young person is assessed as not suitable, or if the young person does not consent to participate, the youth justice court advice worker will consult with line management about the best approach to have the matter taken back before the court.

In most cases, the best course of action is to discuss the matter with the young person’s legal representative and ask them to relist the matter before the magistrate.

Inform the magistrate that, following an assessment, the young person has been found not suitable for bail or deferral of sentence and briefly outline the reasons.

If the young person has left the court precinct or cooperation from the legal representative is not forthcoming, it may be necessary to consult with the police informant about having the matter relisted.

Consideration of special conditions

When making a recommendation to the court about a young person’s suitability for supervised bail or deferral of sentence the youth justice court advice service worker may make suggestions for special conditions to be included on the order.

Examples of special conditions that may be appropriate are:

to follow the lawful direction of youth justice

attend a substance abuse program

undertake residential drug rehabilitation program

submit to regular urine drug screens.

Return to court for bail hearing

The youth justice court advice worker will complete a supervised bail / deferral of sentence suitability assessment and submit this to court.

This will explain whether the young person is suitable for youth justice supervision or not. This report must clearly state any special conditions recommended by youth justice.